Comet NEOWISE

DBK

DBK

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There's a new comet in the night sky which is now apparently visible to the naked eye. It isn't huge, it isn't hugely bright either. It is also very low on the northern horizon but will climb a little higher over the next week or so. I'm not certain when is the best time to see it but as it is more or less directly north it shouldn't move much as the night passes so any time when it is dark should do. On 17 July it will move into Ursa Major, (the Great Bear or Plough) which most folk will be able to recognise so this may help indicate where to look.

We aren't expecting clear weather until the weekend but we will be in Cornwall then and hopefully under dark(ish) skies.

www.skyatnightmagazine.com

Comet NEOWISE is fading: catch it while you can

Comet C/2020 F3 NEOWISE is fading from view, but it isn't gone! Make the most of it while you still can.
www.skyatnightmagazine.com www.skyatnightmagazine.com
 
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July 23rd seems to be the optimal, or a little after that
Was getting quite excited to be able to use my star tracker with my camera for the first time, but now wondering it will be of use due to commet going in opposite direction from earths rotation...but not sure on speed so may be ok!!
hell, an excuse to give it a whirl to get used to it before the galaxy core attempt later this month as well!!
 
bungy said:
July 23rd seems to be the optimal, or a little after that
Was getting quite excited to be able to use my star tracker with my camera for the first time, but now wondering it will be of use due to commet going in opposite direction from earths rotation...but not sure on speed so may be ok!!
hell, an excuse to give it a whirl to get used to it before the galaxy core attempt later this month as well!!
Click to expand...
Is that a built on feature of the camera? Does it must rotate the image each shot so the stars stay in one place and don't appear as streaks? If it does it should be ideal but youay need to keep the comet in the centre of the shot.
 
Now that would be pretty awesome!!
But alas no, it attaches to the tripod head then the camera is mounted on it.
You align it to polaris then set the timer and set your camera on long exposures or lots of shorter ones with an intervalometer, point the camera at whatever you want to capture and.....pray to gods of photon capture and then blend together in post processing...hopefully!!!

Went for a mechanical tracker rather then an electronic one
 
It's visible now if you have clear skies. Look almost directly north and find the Plough, which is well canted over with the handle pointing up. Find the right hand star of the cluster and trace it down towards the horizon. Here in Devon the comet is about five "fists" above the horizon. What I mean by that is with an outstretched arm and making a fist, thumb upper most, it is five fists above the horizon.

It is very feint if you don't have dark skies. Look a little away from the area and you may glimpse a streak in the sky. But to see it properly you need binoculars. It is worth the effort, its the most impressive comet I've ever seen.

And the ISS made a pass overhead at the same time. They must have good views. 😊

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Yep, got it thanks 👍🏻
It’s fainter than I hoped but there.
I’m in a town so light pollution isn’t helping.
 
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When I took the dog out last night at about 11pm, the sky was very clear and I could see ursa major, so had the thought to look for the comet. I could just about see it unaided, but with the binoculars it was excellent!
 
https://stellarium-web.org/ looks useful for looking at where neowise should be.
It has a label 👍🏻😎

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Managed to get a reasonable photograph of the comet last night. Conditions were not perfect, it was only about 11 and there was still a bit of glow in the sky plus this isn't exactly a dark skies area. It is supoposed to have a curving tail and if you look carefully there is just a suggestion of this I think.

CometNeowise4.png


Jupiter is in the south and very visible with the four main moons all showing. My photograph is rubbish but it does hint at what you can see. The moons are easily visible through binoculars and a few people in a million are supposed to be able to see them with the naked eye. :)

Jupiter3.png
 
DBK said:
My photograph is rubbish but it does hint at what you can see.
Click to expand...
I wouldn’t of thought it was rubbish if you hadn’t told me.
I’d be pleased with that - you can see it’s a planet with four smaller satellites.

We get spoilt with NASA & observatory photos in the media but making the effort & seeing objects in the sky for yourself is worth it.
 
kevenh said:
I wouldn’t of thought it was rubbish if you hadn’t told me.
I’d be pleased with that - you can see it’s a planet with four smaller satellites.

We get spoilt with NASA & observatory photos in the media but making the effort & seeing objects in the sky for yourself is worth it.
Click to expand...
Thank you, looking at it again what I thought was a bit of camera shake (the moons are elongated) is down to the exposure I think. The exposure was only a few seconds but in that time the Earth rotated enough for them to appear as a short streak. :)
 
DBK said:
Thank you, looking at it again what I thought was a bit of camera shake (the moons are elongated) is down to the exposure I think. The exposure was only a few seconds but in that time the Earth rotated enough for them to appear as a short streak. :)
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check out this caluclator https://www.photopills.com/calculators/spotstars

Also, have a good at stacking...can get some great photos that way
 
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bungy said:
check out this caluclator https://www.photopills.com/calculators/spotstars

Also, have a good at stacking...can get some great photos that way
Click to expand...
That's a useful link, thank you, I've bookmarked it although with the lens and camera* I was using I need to use an exposure of about a second to avoid trailing.

I've done a bit of stacking and took some multiple exposures last night but because of the streaking I haven't done anything with them. I might have another go.

*Olympus OM-D 10 and 75-300mm zoom which is the equivalent of 150-600mm on a normal 35mm camera.

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And a stacking one from the other night as well, not sure of what i think its the milky way going through cygnus - it just happened to be above me at the end of a shoot and thought id give it a crack

15 image stack, with lightroom and photoshop and some edits as recommended on youtube.

20200716-IMG_2038-Edit.png
 
I like stacking, this is with my gopro on a 2 hour set 30sec each exposure, but obviously, not of the comet

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DBK said:
You've got nice dark skies. :)
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yeah, fortunately were right on the edge of the black mountains dark sky area
downside is i want to get some milky way core photos over the next few weeks but from me that is Newport and Bristol light pollution territory!!
but, ive got myself a tracker now so should be able to do some long exposure stacks
 
Bobby-gg said:
I like stacking, this is with my gopro on a 2 hour set 30sec each exposure, but obviously, not of the comet

Click to expand...
nice, ive been meaning to have a go at that myself...thanks for the push :-)
 
and one more, really wanted to capture the two tails and can just make it out with this one, the left tail is quite faint but its there so happy with that :)
20200719-IMG_2279 2.png
 
DBK said:
That's a useful link, thank you, I've bookmarked it although with the lens and camera* I was using I need to use an exposure of about a second to avoid trailing.

I've done a bit of stacking and took some multiple exposures last night but because of the streaking I haven't done anything with them. I might have another go.

*Olympus OM-D 10 and 75-300mm zoom which is the equivalent of 150-600mm on a normal 35mm camera.
Click to expand...
ive got the omd em10mk2, didnt get on well with it for astro work. so have a canon 80d now as well which im liking a lot especially its low light capabilities and near isoless sensor
But now ive got a tracker im going to have another crack at it :)
 
bungy said:
ive got the omd em10mk2, didnt get on well with it for astro work. so have a canon 80d now as well which im liking a lot especially its low light capabilities and near isoless sensor
But now ive got a tracker im going to have another crack at it :)
Click to expand...
Yes, I agree the OM-D sensor isn't very good at night.

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Rub it in why don't you! Been cloudy here past week and guess what? Cloudy again! Was clear about 3.40am last night but sunrise was looming.:oops2:
 
Thanks DBK for helping us identify the comet last night. Knowing exactly where to look enabled us to find it with our binoculars. Not as spectacular as these photos but glad we saw it.
 
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